Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Lebanon and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Can to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Rufus Thomas. All the underground hits.
All Groovy Waters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every F. McDonald record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Colin Newman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Vainqueur,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Reuben Wilson,
MDC,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Five Americans,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Ultravox,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Nirvana,
Pierre Henry,
Faraquet,
10cc,
The Invisible,
The Blackbyrds,
cv313,
The Walker Brothers,
Slave,
The Moody Blues,
Index,
Lou Reed,
Harpers Bizarre,
Pagans,
Tears for Fears,
Sound Behaviour,
Robert Wyatt,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Velvet Underground,
Saccharine Trust,
David McCallum,
Ten City,
Mary Jane Girls,
Parry Music,
Amon Düül II,
the Swans,
Terrestrial Tones,
Wally Richardson,
Big Daddy Kane,
The United States of America,
Dorothy Ashby,
Al Stewart,
The Vogues,
X-102,
Gerry Rafferty,
Johnny Clarke,
The Shadows of Knight,
Minutemen,
The Angels of Light,
Pole,
Echospace,
Absolute Body Control,
Man Eating Sloth,
Underground Resistance,
Yaz,
The Beau Brummels,
Circle Jerks,
Tommy Roe,
The Kinks,
Black Sheep, Black Sheep, Black Sheep, Black Sheep.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.